Facebook drama

I was on Facebook the other day and came across a post by one of my so-called "friends" rallying the troops against Wisconsin Gov. Walker and his stance on public union collective bargaining. One of her commenters, a young woman, falling right into line, threw out a bomb that went something like: go figure... corporations, modern day mass murders and thieves.

Several other commenters chimed in bolstering her rather ridiculous statement. So I thought I'd have a little fun. You see people who make such preposterous statements don't expect to be challenged. In my initial reply I simply turned the tables and made a mildly preposterous statement about public unions, something like: go figure... Public unions, selfish budget busters, why should they pay ONE DIME for their own health care and pensions.

What followed was a lashing out by a liberal who was just infuriated that anyone would challenge her world view. My second reply simply said: Incendiary language perverts the discourse, it's unhelpful. Just like the Madison protesters carrying their signs comparing Gov. Walker to Hitler, while very original having never been tried before, does not an argument make.

Well, the floodgates were wide open now. This young woman was beside herself with rage. She posted 5 incoherent flaming posts direct at me. There was no attempt now to engage in a dialogue, only lashing out. When I logged back on to Facebook her comments had been deleted, most likely by herself, and that was fine, I deleted mine as well.

The thing to take away is evident. Liberals feel free to flame anything they don't like, regardless of how utterly preposterous it is. When challenged they go nuts. Are some corporations mass murderers and thieves? Probably. I'll bet it wouldn't be too hard to dredge up evidence were a rouge corporation was in some way partly responsible for mass murder and certainly even easier to find thieving corporations - but these would be extreme exceptions not the rule. Just as it would be possible, I assume, to find responsible public unions.

Was her initial post tongue-in-cheek? I don't think so, at least nothing that followed would have indicated that she didn't really believe that corporations were evil. Was she exaggerating? Yeah probably.

It was fun and I dare say instructive. But then I've seen it before. When I used to go to the Daily Kos and Democratic Underground websites and try to post reasonable retorts I found myself under attack or my posts deleted almost instantly.

I probably will stay away from getting political on Facebook, but I just had to stir this one up...



CW